Glyphland

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Stanton is back. Not that Stanton. The other one. David Stanton, a JUCO recently dinged by the NCAA, got un-dinged and will be available for MSU this year, a major help to a thin defensive line.

Zone blitzing is something you might want to get used to this year if Herrmann death-grips this weak zone coverage like many fear. Dave Sez has a great new regular feature with ex-small school QB/safety Bob Pentland where he explains stuff to you. Zone blitzing is first up.

Upon further review, Lloyd is pissed about the defense after watching the tape. His monday press conference comments are a 180 from his infuriating comments in the immediate aftermath of the game. Carr said things like "I think if you take one play out of the football game, our defense did a very good job." Yesterday he said things like "Defensively, I'm very, very disappointed in the way we played, particularly in the front seven. I don't think we played well at all up there." Chris Graham was singled out as an exception.

Evidence of Carr's displeasure can be seen on the newly-modified depth chart, which has Will Johnson listed as OR with one Gabe Watson. Scott McClintock (who was a particular target of ire after the rewatching) is still listed behind David Harris, who will start if healthy. Given his china-doll status I don't know how much the team is counting on that, though. One thing I noticed: redshirt freshman John Thompson did quite well in his limited time.

Strangely (and more on this later), I was actually less pissed at the defense after watching the tape. It's the difference between "you slept with my mother" and "you did WHAT with MY GRANDMOTHER," sure, but still it's something. Teeny tiny, agile Wolfe posed a problem to the defense because he could easily stop and start somewhere else if the play was jammed up, which it was pretty frequently. The bad news is that I saw Darius Walker do that a lot against Pitt. More later today.

Also of note: Adrian Arrington is going to be out "a while" with what is probably a high ankle sprain. (Interesting that the official site's transcript has no mention of the injury, though Rivals does.) Depending on how long Arrington is out and how well Tabb, Dutch, and Manningham perform in his abscence, there's the possibility of a medical redshirt here since Arrington played as a freshman.

Update: Remember to check Bloglines before posting, stupid. Blue Cats & Red Sox has an excellent game recap up and a number of tres excellent pictures. Proposed is a sacreligious but fun self-crossing for M fans:

Chad Henne is a god in yellow spandex pants. That about sums it up, but really, every time someone says his name now, I feel like I should cross myself. I'm not Christian, though. There ought to be some kind of alternative gesture I could use in a similar fashion. Perhaps I should work out a way to sign a giant M. Left hip, left shoulder, sternum, right shoulder, right hip? Let's get that going.

There is also discussion of making out with Kevin Grady and exclaiming that fact to the entire student section.